Weekending

We are just flying right through February and I'm not hating it. Hopefully work will soon start to slow down for Stephen and he won't be working such long weeks. I didn't get around to blogging on Friday but I did want to share our simple Valentine's Day so that it's remembered :)

After work, I decided to make a delicious steak dinner (recipe coming Wednesday) but my timing was all off because Stephen got home extra late that night. I was very happy that the steaks turned out so well though despite the long wait. After Stephen got home, we were able to eat dinner and I gave him his card. The next day, Stephen was off at a normal time so he stopped by Publix to get me flowers and a card.

Now let's get into our weekend - during lunch on Friday, I ran over to Style Encore to check out their spring collection. Unfortunately, nothing really fit right except for this skirt which was $12 and then I got $5 off - can't beat an adorable LOFT skirt for $7! 

That afternoon, I had a meeting on the other side of Orlando and while over there, I realized my friend lived close by and I hadn't met her new baby yet! I stopped in after my meeting and loved getting to meet baby Tristan, even if it was only for a few minutes. After I left, it took me 2 hours to get home... 2 hours! I hope I never have to go back to that office again - it was rough.

Getting to hold this little guy was worth the long drive home!

Saturday, Stephen didn't have to go into work until a little later so we were able to watch the final Christmas episode for Downton Abbey. I'm so sad it's over butttt I did see the rumor that there might be a prequel and a motion picture! Once Stephen left for work, I got going on a few embroidery orders and ran a few errands. Shockingly, Stephen got off work at 4:00 so we were able to have a whole evening together for once. We worked out (I introduced him to Tone It Up ;)), made dinner and finished up the night with some funny YouTube videos.

Sunday, we went to church (an old guy fainted so the paramedics had to come in right during the Lord's Supper - thankfully he should be fine), stopped by BB&B to order a wedding gift and then finished up at Publix. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing laundry and catching up on things.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Linking up with Biana

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wanted to do a quick post to say that no matter what your circumstances, know that God loves you no matter what! He loves us like no one else and will never let you down!

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day and know you are loved :)

Weekending

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I am so thankful to say that ours was fantastic - filled with the perfect amount of relaxation and productivity. I kicked Friday off with a delicious breakfast before work with some of my co-workers to celebrate the move of one of our friends to Denver. We will miss her but it's hard to be sad when she's finally moving back home - I'm so happy for her! Work was very busy for me and Stephen got home late - that was basically our evening lol I did sit in the Chick Fil A drive through for a pack of nuggets because I forgot to get a meat for our dinner and I was too lazy to go into Publix.

Stephen had to work Saturday so I slept in, got some things done around the house, made myself breakfast, caught up on the latest episode of This Is Us and caught up on blogs. Then, I got to work on one of my bridal orders - finished up some handkerchiefs and did some groomsmen socks before vacuuming the house and getting ready for our Valentine's date night. I was worried Stephen wouldn't make it back in time for our reservations at Disney. Thankfully, he put his foot down and left in time for us to get over to Epcot and make our dinner reservation. We had the best time and it was so needed - I haven't seen too much of Stephen lately; 2 weeks ago, I was on a business trip and this past week Stephen would come home late, eat dinner and go to bed. We tried the restaurant at France for the first time and loved it - we even got to see the fireworks!

I need this shirt lol

Sunday, Stephen did not have to work so we went to church and then Publix before coming home for lunch. I ran out after lunch to use my Old Navy money and grabbed these shorts (just found these online and might have to go back and see about switching out) and to get a wedding gift for a friend. Afterwards, Stephen and I relaxed and watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey before eating dinner and getting Stephen off to bed early (he had to go in super early today since he cut things short on Sat). 

I will say this, I watched some of the Grammy's and Beyonce's performance was sooo weird to me. I felt like she was summoning the Illuminati lol Was I the only one who was disturbed by it?

Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!! Linking up with Biana

Valentine's Weekending

We had a fantastic weekend and squeezed every minute of it out that we could, hence the Tuesday weekend recap.

Friday after work, I headed home to see the progress of our new screen!! The guy had finished the frame and was coming back the next day to install the screen. Shockingly, the porch looks so much bigger with the screen! We're so tickled with how it turned out and we're so glad we decided to move forward with this project. Can't wait to get some outdoor furniture and a fan out there.

Before

After

It was so nice outside on Friday that we decided to take a quick walk before it got dark. There's one area in our neighborhood that's building new homes, so we like to stop in a walk through them before they put the doors on - one of the kids wrote Star Wars quotes on the beams to his room. We also finally finished The Office... there is definitely a hole in our lives now. Sunday we had some time to relax and we were like, crap what do we watch now!? Stephen wants to watch LOST next and I want to watch Downton Abbey... Stephen's going to win this one.

Saturday, I made us some cinnamon french toast (recipe coming this week) and then Stephen went back to work on the screen with the contractor. While they were working on the screen, I went shopping. Old Navy was having a BOGO on their jeans and Stephen needed another pair so I graciously obliged while getting myself the "free" pair. I also snagged this shirt for 1/2 off and plan to add a small monogram on the chest. I also stopped by World Market to get a sushi kit (I bought a single kit but they didn't have it online) and by Homegoods to get my SIL a birthday gift.

We decided to run to Lowes after lunch to get some items to make a wooden, white board for some pictures (still in progress). That day, I was having some real good success with my embroidery machine until I almost broke the dang thing while trying to thread a bobbin. It took Stephen and I an hour and a half (or more) to get it un-wound and back to working order.

After that big ordeal, I made Stephen some Valentine's Day cookies. Every year I make him some kind of sweet treat and this year, I decided to put my Valentine cookie cutters to the test. I was planning on making special royal frosting for the cookies but Publix didn't have meringue powder (I don't even know what that is) so I decided to just use Stephen's favorite - funfetti icing.

On Sunday morning, I convinced Stephen to go to Dunkin Donuts for some V-day pre-church donuts. For some reason, he thought there was a BOGO deal and kept saying how we needed to leave super early because there would be a huge line. We get there, there isn't a big crowd and that's when I found out he thought there was a Valentine's deal. I just wanted a fun heart donut since we didn't want to make breakfast before church but turns out all the heart donuts are all filled - gross! So we ended up with a vanilla and strawberry donut - still a win :)

After church, I got to work on cleaning the house and Stephen worked on cleaning up the porch. He also told me he had to run to Lowes to pick up some tape for the shower pipe but went to Publix instead to get me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and my favorite chocolates - Reese's Peanut Butter Hearts.

Later that afternoon, our friends invited us over to see their Victorian style house that they're restoring. It was amazing! I've never been in a house like that before and it was so fascinating - I can't wait to see it finished! While chatting in the driveway, a romantic Valentine's Day carriage ride drove by and I had to get a quick snap of it.

We headed home after seeing the house to get to work on our V-day dinner - baked brie and sushi!

The baked brie is becoming a V-day staple; I made it for our picnic last year

We didn't want to make sushi with raw fish and I'm allergic to shellfish so we made chicken teriyaki sushi. It wasn't too bad to make but we probably won't make it again to be honest. Our $7 sushi from Publix doesn't break the bank but was fun to try something new and it turned out pretty good (I like Publix sushi better lol).

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day weekend (or Gal-entine's)!

Little Things for Valentine's Day

Stephen and I aren't big celebrators of Valentine's Day. Sure, we like to do something a little special but we never go all out and celebrate with elaborate things. Even though it's not big, I do like doing little things for Stephen and our families - I like to remind them that we love them.

This year for our families, I found adorable heart cards and washi tape in the dollar section at Target and figured it was the perfect little thing to send them for Valentine's Day. I loved how the washi tape added a little something to the outside of the cards.

Love my new Kate Spade address book

Every year I like to bake Stephen something fun. Back before we were married, it was a lot easier to surprise him with what I had made but now he just gets to enjoy the sweets without being surprised. 

These chocolate covered rice krispie treats were so good that I made them twice for him! 

These chocolate covered marshmallows look delicious and a lot easier to make!

 

This year, I'm going to go a little more traditional and make cookies with royal icing. I've never decorated cookies with royal icing but I have some Valentine's Day cookie cutters so I'm going to test out the royal icing.

What are some fun things you like to do for Valentine's Day to make people feel special?

Linking up with Annie.

Valentine's Day Gifts

Stephen and I haven't been ones for big Valentine's day gifts (one year he did get me a Coach purse so he could get some nice mats for his car ;)) but it's still fun to look at cute gifts!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Linking up with Jessi.

Valentine's Day 2015

This Valentine's Day was our 2nd one being married and our 4th one together. We wanted to do something low key - restaurants are crazy busy and I looked into a weekend trip but the prices were jacked up for Valentine's Day. We decided to go to our local park and grill out rib eye steaks. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed spending time together outside. Sorry, I'm not sorry for the picture overload...

Friday after work, Stephen and I made these delicious chocolate covered rice krispy treats.

Saturday, we slept in and then attempted to make a heart breakfast with cinnamon rolls and bacon. The cinnamon rolls worked really well but the bacon, not so much,

We packed up all our goodies and headed out to the park later that afternoon. Thankfully we were able to get one of the only pavilions that is next to the lake!

Stephen trying to get the charcoal going

I decided to try to go all out for our picnic this year. I found the tablecloth on sale at Target and snagged it since it's reusable. We had crescent wrapped baked Brie, olives (Stephen's new favorite), coleslaw and raspberry lemonade to drink.

A creepy ice cream truck came strolling through so we had to get a picture - didn't realize Stephen got me in it though, I thought I was his picture decoy.

Cheesin'

We had to get another picture with the meat

While Stephen was working on cooking the steaks, I decided to get some outfit pictures. I kind of got hooked on wanting to do more outfit posts after doing a Pin-spired post. It was a little chilly and unfortunately, I don't have very may warm red or pink clothes so I decided on my plaid scarf which had some red in it. 

Scarf / Shirt / Jeans / Boots / Clutch / Sunglasses / Basket

Pretty much my whole outfit is older so I don't have any direct links to specific items (I realized my shirt is from high school... goodness)

We exchanged gifts when we got home - we decided to only do cards and candy this year.

Sorry it's so blurry - Stephen was joking and said we'll enjoy getting fat together with all this chocolate

We had a fantastic Valentine's Day this year and we look forward to loving each other more and more everyday. I hope everyone else had a great Valentine's Day as well!

Linking up with Biana.